Replacing a "cryptoeconomic approach with a cryptographic approach" simplifies Nightfall's architecture because, as a result, there would be "no need to accommodate challenging incorrect blocks," EY said in a statement.
The move provides "the same privacy and scaling that version 3 enabled, but now with near-instant finality and a simplified architecture," Paul Brody, global blockchain lead at EY, said in a statement.
Though EY said Nightfall_4 and supporting tools are publicly available, their GitHub repository does not reflect the change and opens a 404 error, which means it hasn't been updated.
EY did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment on that front.
From optimistic rollups to zero-knowledge
While optimistic rollups require game-theoretic security assumptions and economic incentives to catch fraud, zero-knowledge implementations provide stronger cryptographic guarantees.
The new design also enhances privacy through zero-knowledge proofs that allow transaction validation without revealing underlying data.
Nightfall remains permissioned for EY's corporate clients despite its open-source code base. The platform enables private transactions on Ethereum while maintaining the main network's security benefits and reducing costs.
Enterprise users, meanwhile, would still benefit from Nightfall's integration of industry-standard identity certificates, which prevent anonymous usage while preserving transaction privacy.
EY began development of Nightfall in 2019. In a 2022 interview with Decrypt, EY blockchain lead said the firm wants "to be the best on earth at Ethereum."
The timing coincides with improved regulatory conditions for privacy technologies, following the U.S. Treasury's decision to lift sanctions on Tornado Cash, a previously blacklisted crypto mixer.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
decrypt.co
